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'Jodhaa Akbar' is a sixteenth-century love story about a political marriage of convenience between a Mughal emperor, Akbar, and a Rajput princess, Jodhaa.
Political success knew no bounds for Emperor Akbar (Hrithik Roshan). After having secured the Hindu Kush, his empire extends from Afghanistan to the Bay of Bengal, to the Narmada River. Through a shrewd blend of diplomacy, intimidation and brute force, Akbar won the allegiance of the Rajputs. This allegiance was not universal. But little did Akbar know that when he married Jodhaa (Aishwarya Rai), a fiery Rajput princess, in order to further strengthen his relations with the Rajputs, he would in turn be embarking upon a new journey – the journey of true love.
The daughter of King Bharmal of Amer, Jodhaa resented being reduced to a mere political pawn in this marriage of alliance, and Akbar's biggest challenge now lies in winning the love of Jodhaa – a love hidden deep below resentment and extreme prejudice.

Miscellaneous Many of the candles shown in the movie are paraffin (Wax) candles. Such candles were made first in 1830.

Miscellaneous Potatoes are native to the Americas. The scene in which the vegetables are kept ready for Jodha's cooking shows potatoes. The film is set in second half of 16th century when potatoes had just reached Europe and potatoes were introduced in India much later.

Miscellaneous When Jodha comes to Agra for the first time after her marriage, a Rajput maid carries the pot of rice that is toppled by Jodha, a common custom. A closer look when the maid carries it reveals that there is a stainless steel bottom for the pot.

Character Error In the scene where Jalal goes to Amer for the first time to take back Jodha, one of the subordinates of Jodha named Madhavi, while watching him through window, comments that "Mujhe to ab bhi vishwas nahi ho raha", meaning "I still can't believe this". This is clearly being spoken in Gujrati accent. It seems unlikely that a small kingdom of Amer (In present day Rajasthan) would have hired domestic help from Gujarat.

Factual Mistake No member of the Mughal royal family named Jodha Bai is mentioned in the official biographies of Akbar and his son Jehangir. Akbar's official biography, Akbarnama, does not mention that Akbar had any Hindu Rajput wife named 'Jodha Bai'. However, the biography of Akbar's son and future emperor, Jehangir, mentions that his mother was a Hindu Rajput princess who adopted the name 'Mariam Zamani' after marrying Akbar.

Factual Mistake Young Akbar refuses to behead Raja Hemu. However, in 'TArIkh-i-Akbari' of Muhammad Arif Qandhari, (translated into English by Tanseem Ahmad, Delhi, 1993, p. 74), it is written clearly that "...The king struck Hemu with his sword and he won the title of Ghazi...".

Factual Mistake In the war scenes, when the cannons fire, they have absolutely no recoil.

Trivia:

Due to the fact that this film was filmed in sync sound, director Ashutosh banned the use of mobile phones for his entire cast and crew on the sets.

Hrithik Roshan had a very "filmy" horse. The horse used to know what words like action meant and so when she heard action, she would take off, even if the scene required her to be stationary. Hence the crew would use other words instead of action to avoid the horse taking off. The names of his horses were Chandni and Superman.

Ashutosh Gowariker hired a research team of historians and scholars from Delhi, Lucknow, Agra and Jaipur to guide him on the film.

Art director Nitin Desai created little cottages for Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai at his studio because Director Ashutosh Gowariker wanted the actors to stay in Karjat, where they were filming, rather than have them commute from Mumbai every day. They had all the comforts of home in the cottage. Hrithik's wife and son also stayed with him at the cottage.

Over 80 elephants, 100 horses, and 55 camels were used in the movie.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan wore brown contact lenses for her role.

This film was originally scheduled for release around November 2007, but post production delay moved it to February 2008.

Yuri or more correctly Wing Commander Yogesh Suri, who played Bairam Khan, is a qualified Cosmonaut, and during his career flew several types of aircraft including the MiG 21 and MiG 25.

For Hrithik and Aishwarya's sword fight scene, initially the sword was made of wood and fiber. But Hrithik and Aishwarya found it difficult to maneuver it, and so the swords were re-made light fiber.

This is Aishwarya's first film where her name appears in the credits as her new married name, Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan.

The district administration imposed a ban on the screening of Jodhaa Akbar in Ambala, India following protests by members of the Rajput community who alleged that historical facts had been distorted in the film. They believe that Jodhaa was Akbar's daughter-in-law and not his wife.

For the grand song and dance number, 'Azeem-O-Shaan Shahenshah', four choreographers were hired to teach the dancers.

While shooting in Sambhar (Faloti village) in June, sandstorms would occur at intervals of half hour. The unit could see the sandstorm coming 2-3 minutes away and they would only stop when it was half a minute away, then immediately take cover and then come back to shoot as soon as the storm would pass. This would happen every half hour. Hritik Roshan was a part of that sequence - the Ajmer Sharif scene.

In order to acquaint himself with the elephant and strike a comfort level, Hrithik Roshan used to travel to Karjat on days when he was not shooting, just to spend time with the elephant and feed her bananas at lunch. He called him Sweety pie and she would recognize his voice and his cologne.

Rajesh Vivek, who plays Chugtai Khan, used to recite poetry to his horse while preparing for the scene where Akbar and his entourage enter Ajmer for the first time, post his marriage to Jodhaa.

During the first schedule in Rajasthan, the dressing of extras would begin at 5am and take almost 5 hours to complete the task. All these extras were Rajasthani's who knew no English at all, yet during the course of the shooting, they started learning words like first pass, second pass, action. Etc. They were extremely well behaved and soon became like junior actors.

Ila Arun plays the character of Maham Anga which is a stark contrast to her personality. So after portraying the very stern character for the film, she would feel terribly shy and immediately return to her trailer.

The film was released in 115 theaters in the USA, making it the biggest American release ever for a Hindi film as of 2008.

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